McMinns ReElection

I've been meaning to comment on the recent announcement in the Gonzales Cannon (I'm assuming the Inquirer also announced it) Mrs McMinn is running for re-election as our district attorney.

She throws all these facts about how she's gotten rid of all these back logged cases. My question is how many of them did she do NOTHING about? How many did she just dismiss and called them closed?

Mrs McMinn has been tough of drug users, I'll give her that, but she has refused to prosecute in ANY county anything of a political nature. She's afraid to take on the tough cases that truly impact you and I as citizens. If there is even a hint that there is a politician or a government agency involved she cringes and avoids it like the plague. Even the police officers just shake their heads when it comes to Mrs McMinn.

Her office has repeatedly lost paperwork filed by the department, and heaven forbid you actually need them to respond back to you, because that won't happen, especially not in writing.

So as a typical politician she's used the old adage "statistics lie and liars use statistics" for her campaign slogan. Don't let her babbling on about what she did fool you in not seeing what she hasn't done, especially for those counties outside of Caldwell.

She didn't prosecute our mayor when in her own words she felt there were issues, how long did Mr. Grant go and only when news media pelted her for it did anything get done there, but again, there were no penalties for violations of terms, she refused to hear several other cases of fraud in Gonzales County, and continues to live in her fantasy world.

I hope we'll all remember what Mrs McMinn DIDN'T do for us when they go to the poles next year.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

$575,000

I saw a comment on my last post about the $575,000 that the city spent at the last city council meeting. Yes, they voted for $575,000, but in reality $400,000 of that was budgeted money that GEDC had put for the expansion at Victoria College. The additional $175,000 was unbudgeted.

Now it is my understanding that out of the old Quality parking lot/buildings, the college only gets the first building, nothing more. I don't know if it's on a perpetual lease, or we've given it to them or what, but I know they have full use of the building.

If I understand correctly the additional lots are hoping to be sold by the city to recoup some of their money and who knows, maybe even make a penny or two on that money. I guess that the cities GEDC or GADC could try to use it as dangling carrot to some new business that wanted to start up in town too, though I've not heard anything mentioned along those lines from anyone in the city.

Now we've spent $100,000s on items I don't understand. Things that are totally unnecessary (like the weather station at the airport) and things that are just wasteful (like approving the 5 minute video for $20,000+ - that did eventually go away, but not without serious issues being brought to light first). But there are things that I do believe we need to spend some money on.

Should they have been budgeted first? Yes, but in this case it was totally unforeseen, and we have to make allowances for these, much like the fire departments extra expenditures.

But as I was starting to say, there are something that we need in this town. And I'd like to say that Victoria College is just for our kids, so that they would have a chance, so they could have a career, so that we as a community would stop living at the lowest of standards, and be able to give our kids a better chance. But what I'm finding out is it's not just for our kids. I know a lot of 30+ year old people attending VC trying to better themselves. Right now most of them are in the medical fields, but there are others doing other things over there too, taking vocational classes, so they aren't making minimum wages.

When families in this community start lifting themselves up off the minimum wage job scale, the entire community benefits! Victoria College is the best hope 90% of our community has to EVER lift themselves above that level. It's an affordable way for local kids out of high school have to get their feet wet in the real world of studies, and not be paying $1500/hr for school. But more importantly VC offers vocational studies that our high schools should be providing, so that people can study to be a nurse, a welder, a truck driver, and a mechanic. If you have one of these skills you will ALWAYS have a job! It may not be the job you want, but you will always have a job. That's not something a majority of our youth or even older can say in Gonzales.

Do I wish there was a better way to come up with the $175,000? You bet. I wish one of our local businesses (or several of them) would of created an endowment for that purpose. But considering the options of building a new building (which was bid out at FAR more than the $575,000), or not have these classes, I think our council and GEDC did a great job - not something I say all the time.

I know originally they wanted over a $1,000,000 for that lot, they negotiated it down to 1/2. I know that it will clean up an eye sore on highway 90a. I know those who come out of that class will be ready to go to work making decent money. Win, win win.

I also know that we have a potential to win even more if the additional lots are sold to businesses that could produce additional jobs and value to our community.

Was it perfect? Nope. But it was a great expenditure of $175,000 from our council, and the $400,000 from GEDC.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Ethicly Speaking

So there were 2 issues that I am having a bit of a problem with involving Chief Crow. I want to stress, I don't think any laws were broken. But there is an ethical point of things that I believe have been crossed in these 2 issues.

The first is the investigation of missing funds from JB Wells. Now I have several problems with our own police department investigating these missing funds.

1) JB Wells funds were at times dropped off at the police station for safe keeping until the next business day where they would be turned into the city office. This leads to a conflict of interest when you start investigating your own people. It's hard to be truly objective when it's your own family, or in this case your own department are involved.

2) Even if the funds had not ever landed at the police station, we live in a small town. And I am just going to say it, there are those that are, and those that aren't. And if you are, then justice has a tendency to look a little different when it comes to you. No matter what the final report sent to the DA there will forever be a whisper in Gonzales about the one that got special treatment, or got away, or was the scapegoat because of the local police departments investigation. Now I want to stress, I'm not saying it will be so, but in this town it will still be the talk of the town as soon as the DA announces their decisions.

3) I know that the Texas Rangers were given the information, and the city council was told this to appease them that the investigation was going outside of our PD. I know that at least a couple of the council members were shocked to hear that GPD filed the report with the DAs office instead of the Rangers. This whole thing, 100% of EVERYTHING, should of been handed off to the Texas Rangers, impartial outside agency that has no ties to Gonzales or it's people.

Second is the handling of the JB Wells concession. Shortly after Mr. Maeler was fired, all of the concessionaire personnel were also fired and Sarah Tenberg was put in place to run it.

So what are my complaints here? Several

1) Why didn't we put an RFP out FIRST then after the award was given then we relieve the employees. We put the cart before the horse here.

2) Second, it's taken the city almost 2 months to get an RFP out, and now another month before the deadline. I'm hoping that they don't try to push the awarding of the contract out another month because of the shortage of time between the deadline and the next city council meeting. But without any bidding process, a private business was given an inside line to a potentially lucrative contract out at JB Wells.

3) Third, and here comes the small town politics, Mrs Tenberg is friends of the Crow family. Read #2 about private business and inside line.

Any laws broken that way? Not that I'm aware of, but poor ethical judgement was used here.

I've been arguing that the concessions needed to be sourced out for over a year now, and am happy that it's happening, but we did this all wrong, and once again the whispering underlying the whole thing is just incredible.

When are those in public office going to learn they need to be ethnically above board, and transparent in their actions that affect those they serve? In both of these cases Chief Crow has not been.

Again, I want to stress, I don't believe anything illegal has occurred. I just don't believe that the best interest of the City of Gonzales were considered when these actions were taken. That's just my opinion.

God Bless
Dennis Nesser

PS - I wish everyone in Gonzales the Happiest of Thanksgiving.

Cha-Ching

First Tuesday of the month was last night, so that means that our city council was in session and another chunk of unbudgeted change was approved for spending. No don't get me wrong, there are times we must spend unbudgeted money, and one of them was last night to an extent, but the rest? So here's the run down:

$48,000 in longevity bonuses for city employees. I have a couple of issues with this carte blanche bonus, though have to give Tommy Schrig props for trying to do it correctly.

This bonus is $4 a month for every month an employee has worked for the city up to 25 years. Now that includes Mr. Barnes who has worked for the city for 1 month. Councilman Schrig tried to pass it so that is applied to employees over 10 years. In my public working I've never seen one paid for any employee under 3 years. But not Gonzales. Why are we thanking those for their 'longevity' when they haven't proven any?

Additionally Councilman Hernandez asked about the handful of employees that within the last 2 years have gotten pay raises of over 25% and if they too would get the bonus. Oh yeah they will.

So why didn't the council table this motion till these issues could be sorted out? Had the city manager bring back a revised proposal that would truly benefit those who deserve something, yet not double dip those who have already benefited AND those who haven't earned it yet? I'm at a lose as to why our council is so quick to pass everything that comes before them.

Now the fire department asked for $10,000 in additional funds for unforeseen expenses, primarily due to the additional use they've gotten this year. My ONLY complaint is that we should have in our budget some of this additional repair items. We know that repair cost are never going to be what we thought they'd be. And heads up, for the next couple of years while this drought continues our fire department is going to need more money! Let's get it planned for now. I know it's not one of those expenses anyone wants to pay for, until that fire is at your house, but we've got to, and these firemen have busted their own tails raising money themselves too.

Now in one breath we heard (though I haven't seen the ytd/budgeted finances to confirm) that we have a windfall of cash from increased tax revenues and oil, and then in the next breath heard we would be going out for bonds to pay for the issuance of bonds for the money we need to make things work.

What I didn't hear is anything on the St. George debacle. Why after 2 year 4 months we still don't have finished streets.

I didn't hear one committee update from any boards / committees.

And with the exception of 2 out of 13 items, I heard NO discussion of ANY of the issues brought before council. I heard next item, motion, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, next item repeat above.

For those interested, the second item discussed was when Mr. Hernandez asked the city manager to work with the failed petition on garage sale issue to come up with a compromise even though the petition didn't hit the 400+ signatures the city is saying were needed. This will come back up in December for modifications to the garage sale ordinance. So if you're interested be there in December to speak your peace.

God Bless

Elections in Texas - 10 Amendments

Many may not realize but we have 10 amendments on our ballot right now and elections are open in Texas.  Early voting ends this Friday with election next Tuesday (November 8th).  Traditionally off year propositions are all passed, because only those that are for the amendments go vote.  The rest either are unaware, uneducated, or just don't care about the propositions. 


This year there are billions (yes really billions) of dollars at stake, along with more and more government.  Is it really a year not to care and be knowledgeable on what's on the ballots.


The following explanations and basic explanation is from Vote Texas. I have 2 writings from We Texans in there that wrote anything I could of said much clearer.  There are just a couple of these that seriously are complicated and making them even more complicated. The rest I've added my 2 cents in for all it's worth.  Most of these amendments need to go down in flames, but come Tuesday, unless you and I and our fellow Texans get out to vote they will pass. 


So pass the word, get the neighbors to vote and let's tell Austin to start doing their jobs and taking care of business!

Proposition Number 1 (SJR 14)

SJR 14 would amend the constitution to authorize the legislature to provide the surviving spouse of a 100 percent or totally disabled veteran with an exemption from ad valorem taxation of all or part of the market value of the surviving spouse’s residence homestead as long as the surviving spouse has not remarried, the property was the residence homestead of the surviving spouse when the qualifying veteran died, and the property remains the residence homestead of the surviving spouse.

Dennis's Note - I'm a veteran and and advise I give here would be very bias.  I'll let you decide.

The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows:  "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for an exemption from ad valorem taxation of all or part of the market value of the residence homestead of the surviving spouse of a 100 percent or totally disabled veteran."

Proposition Number 2 (SJR 4)

SJR 4 would amend the constitution to authorize the Texas Water Development Board to issue additional general obligation bonds on a continuing basis for one or more accounts of the Texas Water Development Fund II, with the restriction that the total amount of bonds outstanding at any time does not exceed $6 billion.

Dennis's Note - I'm not keen on any additional $6B that our state wants to add to our debt, especially a revolving account with no time limitations on it.

The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows:  “The constitutional amendment providing for the issuance of additional general obligation bonds by the Texas Water Development Board in an amount not to exceed $6 billion at any time outstanding.”

Proposition Number 3 (SJR 50)

SJR 50 would amend the constitution to authorize the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board or its successors to issue and sell general obligation bonds on a continuing basis for the purpose of financing educational loans for students, subject to certain constitutional restrictions, including a restriction as to the maximum principal amount of bonds outstanding at any one time.

Dennis's Note - Ok, I'm not a believer our system needs more money thrown at it.  I'm a believer that our entire education system needs revamping.  We could drain ever penny we have in this current system and get no better results.  This is NOT a comment on our teachers, but on the curriculum and methods that are given to them to teach.  Until our state gets that straight, we are just pissing money down the drain, and we would add to that if this passes.
 
The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows:  "The constitutional amendment providing for the issuance of general obligation bonds of the State of Texas to finance educational loans to students.”

Proposition Number 4 (HJR 63)

HJR 63 would amend the constitution to authorize the legislature to permit a county to issue bonds or notes to finance the development or redevelopment of an unproductive, underdeveloped, or blighted area within the county, and to pledge increases in ad valorem tax revenues imposed on property in the area by the county for repayment of such bonds or notes.  The amendment does not provide independent authority for increasing ad valorem tax rates.

Dennis's Note - Under current law, cities are authorized to use property tax revenue to secure loans to fund the development of blighted areas.  This proposal would extend that authority to counties. So groups are concerned that the counties could use this for eminent domain abuse.


The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows:  "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to permit a county to issue bonds or notes to finance the development or redevelopment of an unproductive, underdeveloped, or blighted area and to pledge for repayment of the bonds or notes increases in ad valorem taxes imposed by the county on property in the area.  The amendment does not provide authority for increasing ad valorem tax rates."

Proposition Number 5 (SJR 26)

SJR 26 would amend the constitution to authorize the legislature to allow cities and counties to enter into interlocal contracts with other cities and counties without having to assess an ad valorem tax and set aside a specified amount of funds for the payment of costs under the interlocal contract.

We Texans Note - Currently, cities and counties may not create debt unless a tax is levied that is sufficient to pay the principle and interest on the debt.  Cities and counties frequently enter into “interlocal contracts” whose term is less than one year because the costs associated with those agreements are funded from the current budget.  To enter into a contract that extends beyond the current year would have the effect of creating a debt that will carry to future tax years. Debt of that type should require voter approval on a case by case basis and not be permitted unilaterally through a constitutional amendment. (They said it clearer than I could)


The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows: "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to allow cities or counties to enter into interlocal contracts with other cities or counties without the imposition of a tax or the provision of a sinking fund."

Proposition Number 6 (HJR 109)

HJR 109 would amend the constitution to increase the amount of principal that is available for withdrawal from the permanent school fund each year and would also clarify certain references to that fund in the constitution.  Increased access to the principal of the state public education trust fund would be based upon HJR 109 granting the authority to consider alternative market calculations when determining the amount of principal that is available for distribution to the available school fund.  HJR 109 would also provide authority to distribute to the available school fund annual revenue from school fund land or other properties up to $300 million per year.

Dennis's Note - Right now the state has money set aside for our kids educations.  They are allowed to spend 6% of that money every year, with the thought that they will make at least that must between years.  This is a common practice and secures financing for things like education.  If we allow them to draw down the principal then eventually we will have $0 in the fund and guess what, they'll be looking for our tax money to build it back up.  

The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows:  "The constitutional amendment clarifying references to the permanent school fund, allowing the General Land Office to distribute revenue from permanent school fund land or other properties to the available school fund to provide additional funding for public education, and providing for an increase in the market value of the permanent school fund for the purpose of allowing increased distributions from the available school fund."

Proposition Number 7 (SJR 28)

SJR 28 would amend the constitution by adding El Paso County to the list of counties authorized to create conservation and reclamation districts to develop parks and recreational facilities financed by taxes.

Dennis's Note -  Don't we have enough taxing authorities already?  The city and county already have authority to tax.  Now we really want to create another entity to tax us and have to watch over?


The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows: "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to permit conservation and reclamation districts in El Paso County to issue bonds supported by ad valorem taxes to fund the development and maintenance of parks and recreational facilities."

Proposition Number 8 (SJR 16)

SJR 16 would amend the constitution by requiring the legislature to provide for taxation of open space land devoted to water stewardship purposes on the basis of its productive capacity.

Dennis's Note -  This would make Parks and Wildlife responsible for determining property tax appraisal qualifications for water stewardship.  Really?  Parks and Wildlife now need to get into our tax appraisals?  What are they doing up in Austin?

The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows:  "The constitutional amendment providing for the appraisal for ad valorem tax purposes of open-space land devoted to water-stewardship purposes on the basis of its productive capacity."

Proposition Number 9 (SJR 9)

SJR 9 would amend the constitution to authorize the governor, on the written recommendation and advice of the Board of Pardons and Paroles, to grant a pardon, reprieve, or commutation of punishment to a person who successfully completes a term of deferred adjudication community supervision.

Dennis's Note -  The problem is that the Texas Constitution allows the governor to grant reprieves, commutes and pardons for convictions, but only for convictions.  And our laws have loop holes that leave those that who received deferred adjudication so that employers and others can still pull records and hold them against those who the judge never intended too.  Instead of adding another loop hole, why doesn't Austin fix this properly?

The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows:  "The constitutional amendment authorizing the governor to grant a pardon to a person who successfully completes a term of deferred adjudication community supervision."

Proposition Number 10 (SJR 37)

SJR 37 would amend the constitution by extending the length of the unexpired term that causes the automatic resignation of certain local elected officeholders if they announce candidacy or become candidates for another office from one year to one year and 30 days.


We Texans Note -The “resign-to-run” provision was added to the Texas Constitution in 1958 and was designed to insure officeholders gave their undivided attention to the duties of their office rather than campaigning while in the middle of their term.  The provision created an automatic resignation for elected officials who began their campaign for a new office with more than one year remaining in their current term

Terms for these officials end December 31.  Previously, with filing deadlines in January, officials could announce their candidacy for another office on Jan. 1 or 2 and continue to serve the remainder of their current term.  In order to insure adequate time to send ballots to military and overseas voters, the filing deadline has been moved from Jan. 2 to the second Monday in December.  This provision would extend the provision so that an automatic resignation was not triggered unless the candidate began their campaign more than one year and 30 days before the expiration of their current term.
 
The proposed amendment would appear on the ballot as follows: "The constitutional amendment to change the length of the unexpired term that causes the automatic resignation of certain elected county or district officeholders if they become candidates for another office.

District Champs

Congratulations Apaches Football for holding off the La Vernia Bears and becoming the District 28-3A Champs. 

Cuero is next, and I think this last game was a wake up call for the tribe to not assume your opponents are going to roll over and play dead.  So with that in mind I think we'll have plenty of turkeys for Thanksgiving after next weekend. 

After that it's on to the play-offs.  But let's get past Cuero first.


God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

I've been going to Apache games for 16 year now.  Back when, I has a foster son on a playoff team that did well.  But in all my years of watching Apache football I've never seen a better rounded team. 

Generally we've had great offenses with decent defenses, not this year.  This year we've got an outstanding defense tagging with a great offense.  This is the real deal, all round team.

I was a bit worried after we smacked Sam Houston that our boys would get a big head and stumble this week, but coach obviously keep the boys heads in the game, and not looking forward to the next game before we get there. 

They've played as a team, and as a team I think they will go far.  Without a doubt this is the best team I've ever seen play for the Apaches. 

Good luck to them as they continue on, I know we still have La Vernia next week, but this will be an great year to end up in Cuero.  Thinking there will be some gobblers ducking from the Apache tomahawks.  :)   One week at a time though!

God Bless
Dennis Nesser

2 out of 3 or 3 out of 4 depending

Well I have been working overtime this week and didn't get a chance to write, and honestly the newspaper beat me to the punchline, at least part of it.

First I'd like to know why 2 of the people removed from city positions names were release immediately to the public, and one of them couldn't be release till this week?  Why was Belinda Walkers name withheld when the original statements were made when both Billy  Malaer and Ricky Bazans names were released immediately?  Does it have anything to do with her family?  If not what then?  I can say in all my probes no one can tell me why this one was specifically excluded and the city was unable to let us know who Belinda offically was until now. 

Then I see where Mr. Cavazos is retiring. Now I've made it clear that I thought he should of been shown the door 10 minutes after Mr. Malaer.  If we were going to release Mr Malaer for lack of confidence then what the heck did we have in Mr Cavazos?  Why was he given any more opportunity than any of the other employees that were shown the front door?  If Mr. Cavazos had been doing his job we'd be much better off financially then we are today.  I'm not talking 10s of dollars, but 100,000s of dollars.  Mr Cavazos was the only person who could of and was obligated to come before the council with the problems that were happening in our books.  He was responsible for all checks and balances and procedures for money handling.  He had a responsibility as a city employee AND CPA!

Now the positive spin on all this, while I'm not certain if all the problem issues are taken care of, we have an opportunity to turn things around!  It's not going to be easy, and honestly it's easier to keep everything as is rather than make the necessary changes.  But the opportunity is NOW to make those changes.  We have a new city manager that has already made some changes, and hopefully will be leading the way for more changes. Some in personnel, some in procedures, some in the way we think about city employees.  Let's make positive change in this town, bring life back to it, and have a place that is no longer a laughing stock of those looking in, but a place to be proud to say you're from!

God Bless
Dennis Nesser

The Lie of the Museum District

So this spring our council approved a 'Museum District" for a section of downtown and up through the museums and log cabin.  There were articles about it in both papers I believe.

Now before these came to a vote by our council I asked Mr. Bob Burchard about this district.  He very specifically told me that this was a name only designation, and would carry absolutely NO regulatory connotations to it.  I told him I was concerned that this would be used to try to take away property owners rights in that district.  "Absolutely not" was Mr. Burchards' response to me. 

Later that night at that city council meeting Mrs Glenda Gordon told the council that this was purely a designation that would hold no regulatory connotations.  There were several of the council members that weren't exactly for this designation, but felt that since it was purely in name only it would be ok.  This then would go to our state legislators so that we would be designated the first  "museum district" in Texas.  What a great marketing campaign. That's ALL it was suppose to be, a marketing ploy! 

So I'm going to just put it as clear as I can, we were lied to!  Mrs. Gordon, the same person who brought this designation to the council, has since used the museum district designation to try to close down a new business in that district, the recycling center on St. Louis.

Per the Gonzales Cannon - "Eddie Escobar, an attorney representing Gonzales citizen Glenda Gordon" then followed by "“I also represent the museum district,” Escobar said. “We’re seeking a temporary injunction while this case is pending. That is the first step in this process.” - the case is the one Mrs Gordon has brought against the City of Gonzales, Mr. Lorenzo Hernandez (land owner), and the Recycle Center.  Now why would Mr. Escobar represent a district that was in name only?  No regulatory connotations what-so-ever?  Why was it even mentioned in the lawsuit and the newspaper?

Out of curiosity this morning I decided to drive by for myself. The recycle center is a nice, clean business.  Compared to the green giant that stands less than 2 blocks away, and right across from the park, this business looks like a surgical unit in it's cleanliness.  Both recycling, one looks like the scrap yard, one looks like a welcome business in our community.

Then around backside of the recycling center on Darst is a house with "No Trespassing" signs, a garage that is falling down and cram packed with crap, fences down between the house and garage and their fence between them and the recycle center is falling down (I know this is their fence because I use to own that house and fence).  The house has been vacant for years, and yet the ONLY person other than Mrs. Gordon that isn't paid to complain is the current owner of this house (note owner, not occupant, as they live in Smiley).  Not the business that operates every day as a day care, not the apartment building across the street where people live, and the city has receive absolutely ZERO complaints on this property for any violations what so ever, nor Mr. Sam Lewis from compliance control.

So first of all I want to know what the city council plans to do about this now regulatory designation of "Museum District".  Personally I believe we were lied to as to the reason for it and it should be immediately removed from our books.  I'm sick and tired of being lied to and anterior motives for things coming before our council.  Remove the designation and forbid it from coming back to the council.  We don't like liars and we were lied to about it.

In the past we've had a lot of complaints about Gonzales and the need to recycle.  We've got it, it's on St. Louis and working well.  I've read recently where people are complaining that we need more work for our kids.  Where do you think those come from?  They come from new businesses!

We should be happy to see Mr. Peralez and his business come to town.  We should be welcoming as many businesses like his, good community citizens, that are wanting to come to town.

Mrs Gordon can keep her museum district, we don't need it especially when it start infringing on property rights. 

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

It a freaking blog!

So someone made comment that I had a campaign sign up in violation of our city ordinance limiting campaign signs to 60 days prior to an election. This idiot must live under a rock to not realize that any and EVERYTHING on that board is connected to a blog and that particular blog was Nesser for Mayor where I explained that what I'm really calling for is for people to step up and run for office.

I'm not sure why city council member and mayor have this 'only the holy few' can even run for office, and after all that's not me right? 

I hear from several people that have opinions on EVERY agenda item that comes up.  They need to run for mayor or council.  I hear from people that have out of the box ideas for this city (you know like we actually should be bringing business TO Gonzales, not chasing them away), they should run for mayor or council.  There are people that have some fiscal knowledge that this city could desperately use right now.  They should be running for office.  And while the 'total package' would be nice, I'm not sure who in Gonzales would have all those attributes. 

If you've never run for office it's not a problem.  There is no requirement to have been dog catcher before you run for mayor.  Come by, I don't care who you are, I'd spend an evening with you and talk to you about running for an office and the basics of it.  What you'll have to have, what you should do, what you can expect. 

On a side note I don't know what's happened that some have had issues posting comments.  I posted a fix to it on the previous blogs comments.  I will put them at the bottom of this too. I have not blocked anyone from posting a comment on this blog.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser



Fix to not being able to post a comment:
Tools - Internet Options
Click on the "Privacy" tab.
Set the Privacy slider to "Medium".
Hit the "Advanced" button, and examine the "Advanced Privacy Settings".
Check “Override automatic cookie handling”
Click both "First party Cookies" and "Third party Cookies" should be set to "Accept"

Nesser for Mayor

 

Ok, bet I got your attention on that one didn't I? I figured it's first shot weekend, so I'd make the first shot in the upcoming election.  But before I get to much further, I have no intention of running for mayor, but I do have intentions of making sure those that are considering it understand the process.  And those who think they can run this city should do so.  That's right as far as I'm concerned there should be 10 people running for mayor and council. 

First of all it cost NOTHING to file to run for mayor or city council.  There is no declaration of political party, it doesn't matter Democrat, Republican, Independent or Other, it doesn't go on the ballot anywhere.  No certifications are needed, you don't even have to have a high school diploma, nothing!  The only requirement is that you have been a citizen of Gonzales for the last 6 months. So running for mayor or city council is available for anyone in this city who is a resident.  The only thing you have to do is declare with the City Secretary, and fill out some paperwork, bingo you're running for office.

Now we've got some talented people that don't necessarily want to be in politics but would make an excellent mayor. If you know someone in that category it's time to start talking seriously to them about  We've got some people that I'm certain think they know it all that have their opportunity to show the city what they really know, you know put up or shut up (I'm certain many put me in this category).  And yes, you'll have some with personal agendas run too, and the voters will have to sift through all the $#@! to figure out who really will be the best person for mayor.  This should not be a one (wo)man race for either mayor or city council.

So if you think you might want to be mayor or council member, NOW is the time for you to start getting a team together.  People who will talk you up.  People willing to knock on doors with/for you.  People to make you look good.  A platform of things you'd like to see happen in the city would be a good start.  What are your visions for the city? Get it together so you can convince the citizens to vote for you.  And if you have a plan to get the citizens out to vote, that would work even better!  You can't wait till May and expect this stuff to fall into place.  You've got to start now.

If rumors are right we'll have 2 positions that will not have incumbents running.  Nothing concrete, but I'd expect at least one, if not both, of the 2 Bobbys won't run again.  So opportunity is there now for someone to step up. It's time we put some leadership into this city for growth, development of our current assets, and some fiscal responsibility.  If you know someone who can do that for this city, now is the time to get their name out there!

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Vote on Property Taxes

The following is the except for tonight's called meeting.  The first item on the agenda is your property tax rate for 2011.  Now I don't care if you own, rent, or are passing through you pay these taxes.  Either directly or through increased rents.

So far, only 1 person has spoken either for or against the increased taxes that are being proposed (not increase tax rate, but increase because of increased values on our properties), and that person was me.  The council has a chance to vote for the 'effective tax rate' which will still increase the revenues for the city because of new businesses and houses without effecting the amount you paid this last year.

The county has actually LOWERED your taxes, so why does the city want to raise them?

So tonight come visit the council at their new time of 6:30.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

CITY OF GONZALES CALLED CITY COUNCIL MEETING
SEPTEMBER 20, 2011
6:30 P.M.
CALL TO ORDER AND INVOCATION
PUBLIC COMMENTS Pgs.
The public comments section of the meeting is for citizens to address the Mayor and Council (as a whole).

ORDINANCES
1. Discuss and Consider Ordinance #2011-20 for Adoption of the Fiscal Year 2011 Tax Rate 1-22. Discuss and Consider Ordinance #2011- 23 for Adoption of the Revised Drought Contingency Plan 3-34

RESOLUTIONS
3. Discuss and Consider Resolution #2011- 44 to Approve the Subdivision of Property 35-43

EXECUTIVE SESSION
4. Deliberation Regarding Real Property Under Government Code § 551.072

RETURN TO OPEN SESSION
5. Discuss and Consider items listed in executive session as necessary.

ADJOURN

Scout Sign Up in Gonzales

Just a bit off note, tonight is sign up for all scouting in Gonzales.  If you have a girl from kindergarten to 21 years old, or a boy from first grade through 21 we have an adventure for them. 

In a joint venture all scouts have come together with a website www.gonzalesscouting.com.  It describes all the types of scouting in Gonzales.  

We have Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and now Venturing for co-ed high adventure all in Gonzales. 

So if you have a child and want to see them in a great organization that will keep them active and learning great leadership skills, bring them tonight to Gonzales Elementary between 6 and 7:30 for sign up.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

OMG!

If I were the person in charge of responding back to the State of Texas unemployment request, and I missed a deadline on the city manager that was fired in February, and because of my incompetence the EX city manager started receiving unemployment benefits .....I would resign in shame and move to another town!

There are NO FREAKING EXCUSES!

This man should be shamed at every corner he's seen at.  He shouldn't be served in this town anywhere that has the right to refuse service!

Geez, if I were the same man that for years couldn't see any problems at JB Wells,  if I were same man that did NOT put in ANY checks and balances for money handling and then is baffled how we are short on cash, if I were the same man that was suppose to separate JB Wells into its own fund 6 months ago, if I were the man that had not taken action on any one of the limited notes made by our auditors, if I were the man that pulled %$@#( numbers out of thin air for our budget instead of real numbers, if I were the man that never came to the city council letting them know how bad the financials were, EVEN though it was my job I would dig a hole and crawl into it after I quit in shame. In Japan I would be expected to commit Hari-kari.

HOW MUCH LONGER IS THIS TOWN GOING TO STAND FOR THIS KIND OF INCOMPETENCE?????  There is ABSOLUTELY no reason that a certain financial officer should have his job after close of business Monday.

Call the city on Monday, 672-2815, let them know this is unacceptable that we are still paying any kind of salary to our EX city manager and that those responsible should be shown the door IMMEDIATELY!!!

I swear, it appears the 2 were working in cahoots.  You have to wonder how much covering up he might of done to protect his EX boss. 

This is the end of this public ranting.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Committees in Gonzales

I saw something happen at Tuesdays meeting that I've never seen before.  I saw the Beautification Committee give a report on their actions and some of the things they are planning. 

Now I'm going to be honest with you until the budgeting process this year I didn't even know we had a Beautification Committee.  As a matter of fact, I found out we had a list of committees that I learned about during the budgeting process.  It was a bit mind boggling to me, because in my entire time going to city council meetings the only time I've ever heard from any committee was when they needed to appoint additional people to their committees.

So I'm a bit perplexed.  In every other situation, and according to Roberts Rules of Order (one of our governing documents), committees are to regularly report back to the council.  Why?  So that the managing body (read city council) is informed and knows what is going on. 

Over the last year or so I've heard several times that "our councilmen never come to our meetings".  It's not their job!  Their job is to have the reports of committees come to them.  Committees are created to hash out issues, to create solutions to problems that the city council doesn't have time themselves to do.  It does not relinquish final authority/responsibility by creating committees.  It's still all falls back on the city council. 

I want to quote from Roberts Rules of Order - "Generally the term committee implies that, within the area of its assigned responsibilities, the committee has less authority to act independently for the society (or other constituting power (read city council here)) than a board is usually understood to have.  Thus, if the committee is to do more than report its empowered to act for the society only on specific instructions; or, if it is given standing powers, its actions may be more closely subject to review than a board's, or it may be required to report more fully." (9th Edition, Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised)

So  in all the years of going to council I have to ask myself, "Where the heck is the reporting to the council?"  Why do these committees expect the councilmen to come to them, when it's their obligations to report back to the council? 

This last Tuesday Mr. Burchard did a great job of reporting to the council.  He gave a listing of what is in the works, what are on the "we'd like to do" list, and even some long term planning.  The council has now been informed as to what the Beautification Committee is up to. 

I would love to hear from all these other committees too.  Wouldn't they want the council to know that 1) they really are working on things for the City of Gonzales  2) that the direction they are taking is one that the council is wanting to go in so that their work doesn't get yanked after a lot of sweat and blood has been put into it.

Last I have is that while there is probably (though I'm not 100% certain) that most of these committees do not have to have the 3 day written notification of agendas and such that some do (like the council, GEDC, Zoning), it sure would be nice if they posted on the city website that a meeting is planned so that if someone wanted to present an idea to that committee it was available to them. I'm certain our city secretary could post in the agendas and announcements section of our website any upcoming meetings in a heart beat. I wouldn't have a clue how to present something to most of the committees, because I don't know who they are or when/where they meet.

Right now most people in Gonzales don't even know 1/2 the committees we have (btw, ALL committees are to be appointed by the city council per our city charter), much less their function or who is involved.  I personally think it's time to give the recognition to the hard workers, their works, and to come together at our central governing body, our city council, to make sure we are all working together in a single direction, after all it's their job. 

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Response on My Actions for the Proposed Veterans Memoral

For those who missed the city council meeting last Tuesday, there was an item about the proposed Veterans Memorial.  After some heated debate the council had a motion on the table to "get together with all the organizations to town, and come back to us when everyone is in agreement".  The motion was seconded and prior to the vote I stood up to comment.

This was the 2nd time that Mr. Mercer came up on this issue. He followed the directions that the council gave him last time, and expressed that he could not proceed until he knew where the proposed monument would be placed, as the next step is a costly step that requires exact land shaping to finish.  So the a plan drawn up for the 1200 St. Lawrence wouldn't work a block over.

In the end Tommy Schrig withdrew his original motion, and remotioned to grant the Memorial the corner by the cannon on St. Lawrence.

Today I received the following comment on another section of my blog -

Anonymous said...
Dennis Quote - "We (our city) has to get back to basics! If we don't need it right now we can't afford it."   

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for recognizing the Veteran's and the sacrifices they have made for us and our country, but why now? Who is going to pay for that and where is the money coming from? When we are so much in debt why are we approving to spend more money right now? And why you Dennis of all people were fighting for them to make a decision? You are the one constantly complaining about the spending and the budget. Also you are the one who stated previously that there needs to be more tabling of items on the city council agenda rather than making a quick un-informed decision thus costing more money. Why you of all people pushed the council to make a decision when they were going to table the motion? 

In my opinion, you are going against several things that you have already stated you stand for. Why should we believe anything you have to say? It seems that you are only interested in your own agenda and if its beneficial to you to do so or try to make a name for yourself.

September 8, 2011 12:20 PM


So I'd like to respond -

I will be writing more about the proposed Veterans Memorial at a later time, but you are right to ask, and I will explain.

First this Monument is NOT being built with ANY tax dollars.  It's a private venture.  I would NOT have supported it had it been in any way funded by the City of Gonzales. This is #1 in my books, and is the only way it should have been considered. If the VFW, AL and IOOF can not raise the funds to build this monument they have NO right to ask the city for ANY money (see my comment quoted above).

Second I saw a standoff happening.  One side saying they couldn't move forward until they knew where they would would be allowed to put a monument, and the other saying they didn't want to approve the place till they pleased EVERYONE in the city and had final plans.  Basically killing any possibility of a Veterans Memorial ever happening.  Mr. Mercer had already said they could not proceed without knowing what plot of land the proposed monument would be built on.  Part of the planning is making it work with the plot of land it's going on.

I had no intentions of speaking either way on the memorial until I felt like we got to this stalemate.  Remember this motion had already been tabled once, and Mr. Mercer and his group did exactly what the city council asked of them. They met with the other concerned parties, and from everyone who I've spoken to at the meeting they left with the belief they had come to a agreement.  It wasn't till the following day that there were more ruffles in the waters (this coming from our councilmen).   

And what exactly did I ask for?  I asked for the council to tell Mr. Mercer that yes he could plan to have that plot of land to start planning, or tell him no he couldn't.  Either way it was movement.  I also told the council that if they did approve it they needed to caveat it several ways that did not happen in the final motion.  That if they told him no they needed to point him in the right directions to get their approval.

Since I'm on this topic I'm going to point out that once again our previous city manager Mr. Huseman is the center of this issue.  He went, unauthorized, and requested something of the Beautification Committee (or at least members of it), and never EVER let anyone who did have that authority know anything about his plans.  So in the mean time a great group of guys and gals have worked diligently to do as they were asked only to have the rug yanked out from under them.  So when I mentioned lack of communications before, here we go paying the price for those actions, the very actions that got Mr. Huseman fired. I do hope that the council puts on the agenda the proposed trees, and get a plan for them too.

The only negative comments I've heard about the proposed memorial and this location, is that it conflicted with the historical trees that were also claiming that spot. Again, the council was unaware of this proposed plan, as it was NEVER brought to any council meeting, so they never approved it. It wasn't brought to their attention prior to the memorial proposal. Not one of the council members knew about any usage for the 1200 block prior to this incident.

And for the record, when Mr. Mercer approached Mr. Huseman 3 1/2 years ago, Mr. Huseman didn't say anything about that plot of land being used for anything else. No one but Mr. Huseman knows if which incident came first, and honestly at this point both groups have expended enough time and energy to be upset.

So no matter what someone was going to have their feelings hurt. There was no way to 'win' this without getting someone upset, without putting out some hard working citizen that is trying to do something to make our town better.  NONE!  When those times come it takes the city council to make a decision.  It SUCKS but it's what they get paid for.  Several of the council members even admitted to me after the meeting that they were hoping the someone else would be the bad guy for a change, but all of them I spoke with said ultimately they had no doubt that the selected location would have been approved for the proposed Veterans Memorial. 

So I still stand by my stance that our council should NOT be spending money.  I was actually proud of them Tuesday 1) for not spending 1 dime 2) When the opportunity was brought to them to spend some money at JB Wells (another topic I will be bringing back up soon) they passed with the comment that we need to budget for some of this next year.  *standing and clapping*


So the reader is misinformed or is making presumptions about the memorial and my actions.  They are presuming this is costing you and I as 'joe taxpayer' money.  It's not. 

They are assuming that the city cares where that money comes from, but since we're not paying for it, we don't. 

They are assuming the council was uninformed, and I can honestly say the council knew everything they ever were going to know. Even the council members will tell you that.

Why force a decision?  Because the 1) in this case they did the right thing by tabling the item the first time, but there was NO reason for them to table it a second time (not that an item can't be tabled 2, 3, 4, 100 times if necessary), the end results were going to be the same, and the only difference is that the bad blood was going to boil for longer 2) I felt "A" decision was in order, and I clearly gave them the option to discuss other locations for this monument (the whole conversation is taped for the record).  Had they come back to table the motion to find a second location, I would of been in favor of that, 3) the motion made by Mr. Schrig, and the unrealistic demands place in that motion to table were insane, and absolutely unobtainable for Superman himself. 

Why me? Because no one else was saying what needed to be said.  Kind of like only 1 person in the entire town of Gonzales has spoken up at the public hearings for the property tax increase, that person was me.  Not 1 other soul spoke up one way or the other.  So the apathy shown there was also what was happening at this point in my opinion, and I heard about hurt feelings (and they had the right to be), I heard about needs, I heard whining, but I didn't hear anyone stepping up to get an honest resolution.  So at absolutely the last moment I spoke up. 

I also held no guns to any councilmen heads to get them to change any vote or motion, and trust me the council has shot me down previously and I'm certain will do it again in the future. If they truly felt the motion to table was correct after everything was said, they would of tabled it, regardless of what I said. 

I'm hoping that this explanation will show that I've held true to my writings here at 90asign.com.  As for 'making a name for myself', I'm afraid my name is made in Gonzales.  For good or bad, it is.  I gained nothing for speaking up, I lost nothing.  I made some happy, I pissed some off.  It's what comes with my name and my opinions. 

As for my own agenda...if you're talking about keeping moving Gonzales into the 21st century....if you're talking about being fiscally responsible with taxpayers money....if you're talking about expecting accountability of our city employees and their usage of city money....if you're talking about exposing abuses within our city, then you're 100% right.  If you're talking about Dennis Nesser received anything then let me assure you I received no money, no offer for any position, no 50 cent off coupon for a cup of coffee, not even a beer by Mr. Mercer himself.  So you'd be wrong if you were heading down that line.

Whomever wrote this has obviously read enough of my writings to know what I believe in, and if they are truly honest with themselves after reading this they will know I'm right.  It obviously this was something personal with the writer, and as I said, there is a whole group of people that got the short end of the stick on this deal, and have a right to take it personal.  The problem was, SOMEONE was going to get that short end, there was no way around it.  They are not the bad guys, quite the opposite.  They are the people who put their heart and soul in their work (again as many of us do) that got wronged through no fault of their own.  I truly hope when it's said and done that they too will get what is rightly due to them.  That the council will work with them on their proposal so their hard work is not a waste of time just as they've done with Mr. Mercer on the Veterans Memorial.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Other topics I hope to write about soon -
JB Wells and the state of affairs
Committee and their obligations
What the Veterans Memorial is about

So come back soon and see what I've written.

We ♥ Our Fire Fighters

I have so much to write about going on in the city right now.  But before I do I believe this blog, and we as a community, need to make sure we let EVERY fireman we see gets told "THANK YOU" from the bottom of our hearts. 

Their untold selflessness is what has kept our town safe, especially over the last couple of weeks, and really months with this drought, is incredible and I'm not sure we as a community have let them know. 

For those who don't know we have both paid and volunteer firemen in Gonzales.  A majority of our firemen are volunteers though. 

So you want to tell them thank you?  Do so this Sunday by going through Independence Park and picking up a BBQ plate.  It's a weak thank you, but it will be appreciated and a small token of our appreciation for all the good work these men do.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Beginning to Think

Ok, so the quote of the night from last nights council meeting was "So after everything happening out at JB Wells we started thinking."  To protect the guilty I'm going to leave the names out.  But honestly I had to do everything I could to keep from rolling out of my chair.  My councilman shot me the "please quit laughing before I start laughing too" look.  I was just grateful the speaker was facing away from me and couldn't see me. 

So I'm assuming we're finally starting to think about JB Wells and how we operate it.  That the hundreds of thousands of dollars we've pissed away weren't enough to get the attention of those in our city offices, it took police and firing of individuals to finally get people thinking. 

I hope in the mean time all the other department heads are 'thinking' too.  That they realize that this is no longer an open checkbook town with a bottomless pit of being able to get anything they want.  I know that some departments have struggled over the years more than others, but even those have gotten 'luxuries' compared to our surrounding cities. 

We (our city) has to get back to basics!  If we don't need it right now we can't afford it.  And as I tell my teenagers, there are HUGE differences between what we want and what we need.  I would love to have a water system pumping 10x the water we have with great water pressure throughout town and lots to spare, with roads paved of gold and no potholes or dips that rip out the underside of my car, with roads like Ft. Wahl passable, with stoplights in sync, and great parks with walking trails, and St. George street finished, and our canoe trail finished, and and and and and....but some of these things are not needed right now (though some of them are).

Earlier this year, our city council sat down for weeks on end, working with the interim city manager and all of the department heads coming up with a budget of things that were necessary to run our town for this year.  Necessary being the key word.  Since that time we've added about $500,000 (that's right a half a MILLION dollars in expenditures) to that budget, with a 6 - 15 million project additional in that. All this with a budget that was already 1.5 million in the hole.  That alone was a tough amount to swallow.

So why are we continuing to spend?  Why are we adding non-budgeted items every meeting to our burden?  The item that was in question last night was honestly a partially budgeted item.  The city if finally purchasing some software that will track payments for the RVs, our city cemetery, and other elements of our city that have been run out of a shoe box in the past.  Of the $31,000 that they approved, $25,000 was budgeted.  It was the additional modules to run the RV slots and cemetery an a couple of other $$$ management pieces that make up the $6,000 not budgeted.  And honestly we've needed something there, but why didn't we budget for this 2 years ago, hell 5 years ago when we put in JB Wells? 

I'm hoping that our city listens to what was said and follows through, and honestly 'begins to think' about how we're operating all aspects of our city right now.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Property Taxes

Ok, tomorrow (Tuesday night at 530) we have a public hearing on raising the property taxes in Gonzales. There will be a second hearing at the regularly scheduled council meeting September 6th.

Now I want to make this clear, I don't want to misrepresent the situation at hand.  At the last council meeting Councilman Logan made the motion to keep the rate of our taxes the same as they were last year.  Per state law though this is actually an increase because of the increase in property values, and as such they must have these public hearings and vote on it as an increase in our tax rates.  It is not because they have increased the percentage of taxation on the value of our homes.

In order to keep the amount of taxation the same, the council must (and still could) vote to have the effective tax rate put in place where the percentage would go down, but our individual taxes would be about the same. 

So here we go, and I actually have 2 trains of thought here, one of them probably not as popular as the other one. 

First to keep the tax rate the same will increase taxes by $21,000 for the city of Gonzales.  To quote our Interim City Manager, "This won't even buy a new vehicle for the city".  Now he was trying to say how little this was, and I'm going to tell you for all it's worth it's not even enough to purchase a new vehicle, so way are we wasting our time and money going through all this effort?

Additionally, and more importantly, if we wanted  $21,000 all we would of had to do is cancel any one of the council meetings over the last 6 months.  In that time they have added to our already 1.5 million dollar deficit at the rate of about $100,000 a meeting.  We've added to the airport (don't you use it?), we've paid study after study after study and consultant after consultant that in my personal opinion could have waited till we till we have recuperated from the debacle of our previous management. Even on tomorrows agenda there are what appear to be unbudgeted items. 

I always thought that's what we had a budget process for, you budget, you work the budget, and unless it's an EMERGENCY then you work towards next years budget to get the new stuff added.  I haven't seen anything that was an EMERGENCY at any of the meetings I've attended (which is a vast majority of them).  Why bother putting together a budget if we're not going to follow it?

Additionally I keep hearing about all this oil money, and yet our income actual vs budget was down by 3% last time I looked, meaning we're 3% shy of what we were anticipating receiving in funds for the city this year for this time period.  In addition to that we were over budget in spending, in no small part to JB Wells excessive over budget spending YTD.  So we're not getting as much as we hoped, and we're spending more than we said we would.  Surprise!

So to be very clear, I'm in NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM in favor of the proposed tax rate the way it is laid out right now.


Now comes the part I'm sure a few more will not agree with.  I'm not all together opposed to a tax increase.  I don't think economically it's really the time, but here's what I told one of our council members. 

If the council would come up with a real plan for road and infrastructure improvements, and say we have a 5 year plan, I would be ok with a real tax increase as long as they would decrease the taxes at the end of that 5 years. 

I've seen it done in San Antonio, and it can work!  BUT and I mean BUT that has to be a set in stone, the money from that increase goes to specific projects that we the people have approved, and at the end of the time period the increase has got to drop back down and the city not count on any of that money in the future.  Way to often a council will come up with any excuse to keep the taxes up, but that can not happen! This can not become another "vote for the lottery to pay for our schools" slogan either.  This has to be very specific what these monies would be raised for and when they were the taxes would go away. 

But if those conditions would be met and our infrastructure was the target of the needed money I would be in support. 

But I promise you that the $20,000 that our council is dealing with is a waste of the public hearings and nothing more than a game someone is playing.  Let your councilman know that you expect him to vote for the "effective rate" in 2 weeks. That there is ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE to vote for the rate as it's proposed right now.  How about make a trip to one of the 2 city council meetings and speak up for yourself?  Tomorrow at 5:30 or next Tuesday at 6. 

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Grant and District Attorney Heather McMinn

Ok, so I've received no less than a dozen phone calls and dozens of emails asking me about my thoughts on the Grant decision.  So here we go.

First of all, if you've been hiding under a rock for the last year, you probably don't know that I filled a report with with the Gonzales City Police Department that was turned over to District Attorney Heather McMinns' office, and they "lost" it.  The police department refiled the charges and in over 3 months nothing has happened. 

The report I filled was on Mayor Bobby O'Neal over his action after the firing of then City Manager David Huseman, and the subsequent check that was issued containing an illegal pay raise and back pay that had not been approved by the city council. 

Now this is the same Mayor Bobby O'Neal that District Attorney Heather McMinn refused to prosecute back in 2009/2010 for the same voter fraud that Mr Grant is being charged with, because of "Political Pressures" and her office didn't have the resources to prosecute the charges.  (For more read my old blog Justice Gonzales Style)

So honestly I'm not one bit surprised.  District Attorney Heather McMinn has proven time and time again that she is incapable of prosecuting anything of a political nature.  I truly believe that if she is re-elected again in May that Mayor O'Neal will retire with not so much as a slap on the wrist for his actions. 

As for Mr. Grant, the 'second chance' was given to him a year ago when he failed to follow through with his probation.  So now for a third chance we'll see if he's smart enough to take it and run.  Do I think it's right? Nope I don't, but I don't expect anything else from District Attorney Heather McMinn and her office.

So once again "Call the DAs office.  Call, let them know that if there was an illegal actions they BEST prosecute!" then "Vote in this next election! Let those involved know WE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS KIND OF CONDUCT! Let everyone know we will remove anyone and everyone involved, that INCLUDES the DA!"

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

I love hooping

I was in Killeen last weekend when I'm scanning through my facebook page to see my chalkboard with the above sign on it. "I ♥ HOOPING".

Now I knew immediately who the culprit was. My first instinct was, 'Oh revenge will be sweet'.  But before any revenge is taken, I thought I'd let you know a bit about the message.

Christine Moers is the hooping queen of Gonzales, and she has a challenge for us all.  Her blog welcome to my brain has discussed the merits of the old hula hoop. It truly is aerobic fun.  She's shared how adults should build their own hoops, as the ones in the stores are really made for kids, and links to videos on how to accomplish this. Her challenge is for the month of September to hoop for 30 minutes a day.

So how does my chalkboard get involved?  Well Christine was doing a hooping video of her and her girls in several places in Gonzales as a scholarship fundraiser.   The Old Jailhouse, The "Welcome to Gonzales" sign, Heros Square, and of course 'The Chalkboard' are all places shown in her video. 

I am not the perfect example of exercise, but my wife and I are planning on taking the September challenge.  In todays world where we sit in front of our electronics and don't move this is a great way to do something fun and active.  You can get the kids involved and it will be a family thing. Why don't you consider joining us?

If you want to learn more about Christine Moers Blog or watch the hooping video go to her latest blog here.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

PS - Don't think revenge still isn't in the back of my mind and heaven help the next person who writes on my chalkboard.  Ask if you want something on there, if I'm OK with it we'll do something. 

JB Wells

So I'm sure that there are those of you that think I've been doing a happy dance in town square over the recent developments in our city.  With the firing of 2 employees, both directly related to the investigation of theft at JB Wells.  Well I'm not!

Before I get started on my tirade, I want to note that the second, Mr. Malaer was fired for and I quote, “The investigation has been able to document numerous violations of the public trust and disregard for management accountability by this person.”  Now theft could be in there, but I don't read it that way.  I read it to be he didn't do his job, and didn't hold those below him accountable for doing theirs. Only time will tell the whole story.

But back to business.

I'm mad! I'm upset! Actually I'm pretty pissed off! Why when everything is so obvious to me did it take 18 months and can we say over a million dollars of losses over the several years (I know it's $20,000/month for the last couple of years) to start to address this problem?  Why have so many turned a blind eye to these issues and tried to defend JB Wells operations and their losses for so long?

Why wasn't our financial officer jumping up and down at city hall meetings telling us there were problems down the street?

Why wasn't our previous city managers screaming that we had to change procedures to get this under control? 

Why wasn't our city council putting this on the agenda every month until it got resolved? 

I know that at one point at least one of the city council members went to the police, but it wasn't in an official capacity.  But maybe that was enough to get the police to start investigating.  I'm not certain what one thing finally got this investigation underway, but if I had to bet it was the firing of David Huseman, and the hiring of Charles Windwehem.

I'm not sure if this investigation is over with.  I'm not sure what the final outcome is going to be.  What I do know is that it's time to finally get a grip on our operations in the city, and especially JB Wells.  Mr. Windwehem has started turning the direction of our city operations around. We can only hope that the new city manager, that will be announced on Tuesday, will be appreciative of all he's done, and continue to turn the city around in a professional manner, with the high standards that Mr. Windwehem has set.

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

How Much More Can We Spend?

So I've not written much about the city because I haven't had the time to follow up on some things that have really bothered me about the city council actions of late.  So I'm going to go over a couple of them here, even though I'm looking at them from one side, and have had no comments from any of the city councilmen.

First was 2 agenda items that were at this months city council.  The first was $28,000 (not budgeted) to have a flow study done of the water system.  There are problems on the northern end of town for water pressure, and complaints from industry that not only is it causing them issues, but it could be hazardous.  The second part of that was $11,000+ for a gis (I believe that was the term used) mapping of the water system. 

Now in my simple mind, how are you going to do #1 without having #2?  How can you tell how much water flow we have if you don't know what size pipes we have, where they are, how long there are, what valves are in place, etc, etc, etc?  Each and every one of those things are factors in your water flow. 

So I asked, all I got was "well they are going to have to do part of #2 to get #1, but it's different, we have to spend this $11,000.  Really?

Now if they had said, "The format they are going to present it to us won't be usable for anything after the study is done, but since the company will have all the information, they can give us a standardized mapping of our water system for $11,000, and we think after this we can keep it up ourselves, and when we loose employees their knowledge won't go away because we'll have it in digital format for the world to use" I might have at least understood we are paying for the upgrade to the model we just purchased.  But the way they made it sound was #1 was going to be magically produced without knowing exactly what our system consist of today. BS!

Second, why did we just 'award' this $40,000 without going out to bid on it?  I've noticed a lot of this going on lately.  The engineer will say, 'I've got so and so ready to go ahead as soon as you approve this project.....' and no bidding is going out?  Why?  Oh, it's ONLY $40,000, no need to? Really? Really? 

You know last I looked times were tough, and there are some hungry people out there that will work, and do a good job for less money all over the place. 

As long as I'm on that subject, I know we're closing in on a city manager.  I hope our city council has gotten their head around this.  I look and one of the 3 finalist appears to have 'resigned' or was going to be resigned (read 'fired') earlier this year.  I have a bad case of deja vue here. 

On top of which there are whisperings that the $70,000k range salary that we've paid our last city manager could be doubled, or close to it.  There is a 9%+ unemployment rate in this great country, and we're going to double our salary right from the start?  Where do we go from there?  Do like the last one and give him a 20% pay raise after 6 months?  People want to work, and there are plenty of qualified (and I stress the qualified) people who would kill for a $70,000 job right now.  They would kill for any job.  From $0 to $70,000, yeap, that's the ticket.  And even those employed right now, like the interim mayor of I believe Flatonia, knows this is a good job or he wouldn't of applied.

One, we are NOT in the position financially to pay that kind of salary.  Second, I believe if you look around, while there are those making that kind of money, it's not a typical salary for our size town.  So in this case I'm hoping I'm wrong, but I don't think I am. We'll know shortly though as I believe this weekend the council will decide on someone. 

Last, I couldn't make it to the meeting on 7/18 because my wife was in surgery.  I found at this council meeting the council approved $120,000 for a financial adviser.  What have I told you lately, every time they go in there is another $100,000 in unbudgeted moneys spent.   This guy has basically told us we could bond out, and borrow the $5,500,000 with a 20 year pay back of $9,000,000.  Using those type of figures, the entire $15,500,000 project will be $25,370,000.  How much will they have to jack up rates to cover that expense?  Let me tell you they can't jack them up far enough.  So once again, I see property taxes going up to pay for this.  Oh, and while our city financial has say he thinks we'll have a aaa rating, I'll bet anyone the best we'll get is a Ba rating.  Why?  Because or finances for the last several years have been in the red, and poorly managed.  So what does aaa to a Ba mean?  It means that $25,000,000 might not be high enough, because it will cost us more to get the loans (bonds).  And for the record, go back about a year in my blog when I first started when I said this would come to bite us in the butt later.  Guess what, later is now!

Good luck and Gods speed to our council this weekend as they finish deciding who will be our next city manager.  I hope the money we've spend weening them out was worth it, because whoever comes in will have to be a Houdini and pull money out of the empty coffers.  I hope they know what grant writing is all about and pull in enough cash to pay for themselves and put our town back on the financial stability, and infrastructure recovery we desperately need in this town.  

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Our Education System

OK, our education system is not something I write about.  I don't follow the school board like I do the city, and normally am not up to par as to what's going on.  I do however have 4 boys, one of who has graduated GHS, 2 in high school, and a 4th starting Jr. High.  I think I have a clue as to how our schools are functioning. And with the release of the current status of our local schools where GHS and LHS along with others received unacceptable ratings, along with Nixon and others dropping in their ratings I thought it was time to pipe in. 

So what do I think of our educational system? I'm going to tell you they are crap.  Now before I hear about all the great teachers and staff and all I want to clarify.  Our system is broken.  It's a crappy system we have.  I don't believe that any amount of 'fixing it' will do a bit of good.  It's a true Humpty Dumpty. 

We have some OUTSTANDING teachers.  How do I know?  Because as anyone who has had one of my boys can tell you I'm very involved in their education.  I believe I have met almost every teach my boys have ever had, and generally several times over the course of them teaching my boys.  That goes for the administrators too, I know EVERY administrator for all the schools my boys have attended. Out of all of those involved, I can think of 4 teachers I'd rather not teach one of my children ever again, and in all fairness I believe circumstances were involved with one of them, two I think possibly were good teachers but needed to retire, and the 4th just shouldn't be a teacher.  But with all the kids teachers that's pretty good odds. 

But we have this notion that our children are to be taught one or two (sometimes more) test that they need to pass every year.  That these test are the entire focus of education system.  Wrong! Our goal in education should be to teach our children to think/reason and to give them a trait that they can take into the world awaiting them and be productive members of society. 

For those who don't know, I'm the Scoutmaster for Troop 262, so I see boys from the age 10 1/2 to 18, and hopefully beyond. Out of those I've met several boys that would NEVER go through college.  They will make good welders, good mechanics, good ranchers, good carpenters, good plumbers, etc, etc, etc but they will NOT be a PhD.  They aren't even going to get their BA, BS, or any other letters behind their name.  So why are we spending money teaching them things like English in their later years of High School?  Why are we teaching advanced sciences to those who honestly won't use them?  Or Social Studies? or or or or....Why aren't we instead doing what we need to and that's give them a skill?

To think that every kid can or should be taught to be a Doctor or Lawyer from kindergarten is nuts. 

Don't misunderstand me, I think it would be sinful to not make sure our kids know how to read, write and do math.  It's a must at almost any job you will ever have.  And to expose kids to variety of activities so they can learn where their aptitudes truly are, be them in science or dentistry, or forestry, or mechanics, or...you get the idea, is what both schools an parents need to so do our kids figure out what they want to do in life.

This morning when reading Christina Moers blog, Welcome to my brain, she posted a video from a conference, Ted2010. In it Sir Ken Robinson (yes a Brit) discusses how our educational system is messed up. It's a 20 minute video, of which 16 is Sir Robinson.  It is well worth the time to watch this video. 



I would love to hear what other parents and employers think of this.  Why employers? Because they are having to deal with the results of our educational system.  So put in your 2 cents worth and let's see, am I the only one that believes we have a broken system that we need to trash and start from scratch with?

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

Catching Up With Times

I believe I've mentioned a couple of these things before, but I think it's time to reiterate them, as we are winding down the interim city manager, and should be close to getting our next city manager.  Now part of these pet peeves is because I'm an IT guy, and know how easy some of this technology is to implement.  Part of it is because of the pain I know it is to obtain information sometimes about our city. 

And before I go on, I'm not saying any of this is standards any other city uses.  Honestly I don't know one way or another.  But I'm saying they are standards that are readily available to us that many industries are using to assist in their issues of getting information to those that use it.

So first is an RSS feed.  This is a way that the city would passively notify anyone who was interested in keeping up with meeting notifications.  By law the city must notify us when they are going to have a meeting.  They do this by letting newspapers and radio stations know, and in our case they also put it on the city website.

If you choose, you can go to the website every night and know what meetings were posted.  What an RSS feed would do is allow me to be notified when the website is updated.  How?  My computer knows that I want to watch the city's page, and every time I go online it will check to see if there have been any changes made and if so let me know.  There are many of you (over 200) that have RSS feeds tied to this blog.  It would work the same way.  I wouldn't have to go to the website to see if anything has changed, and yet as soon as it does, I know I can go check it out. This is inexpensive to set up, and honestly you would use existing code to update the website.

Second thing I would like to see is documentation put into electronic format for the public.  What the heck am I talking about?  Have you ever noticed the books that our councilmen carry to the meetings?  These are documents of information given to the councilmen so that they can make informed decisions.  The news medias also receive these packages approximately 72 hours before the meetings. 

Now to print these documents are something.  They are nothing shy of small books at times, and when things like the budget get put in them, they are large books.  You may request a copy and pay a small fortune for them, but honestly, why would anyone want to waste that much paper? 

It would take nothing for the city to 'publish' these documents in pdf format and place them on the city website up with the notification of a meeting.  Why should they do this?  Well to start with its nothing that's suppose to be hidden in the first place, all open for public dissemination.  The 'Freedom of Information Act' insured that.  Second it would eliminate a lot of questions the public has as to why some things have happened.  After looking at some of the information presented to the councilmen over the last year I know why they decided some things, even though I think had I realized that's what they were looking at I might have been able to shine some light not in those little booklets. 

Want to know what's happening on GEDC? Board of Adjustments? City Council?  These 2 very readily available technologies, would make those available to the public.  I'm almost certain that we already own and use the technology to scan and put documents to PDF, as most current copiers do this.  And our website would take a minimal of adjustments to make it RSS Feed capable. 

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser

JB Wells - Still an issue

This week has once again brought to light what I've been ranting about for a year, the lack of controls our city has when it deals with money, in particularly at JB Wells. Both the Gonzales Inquirer and the Gonzales Canon posted storied about theft happening out at JB Wells, and one employee losing their job already. 

Now a couple of things comes to mind.  First is, why after a year of being in the spot light have we not made changes in our processes out at JB Wells.  This was one of the first issues I ever wrote about.  How we have no checks and balances out there.  How we don't do proper and constant inventories.  How we don't use the cash register to have an account of what we have done in a shift/day. 

Why don't we ask how money is collected for the trailer rentals for those staying out there right now.  

Speaking of the trailers, I've just learned that someone, not our city council, increased the rates at JB Wells for the oil trailers from $350/month to $500/month.  So not quite, but close to a 50% increase in rates. 

I don't know what the going rate is around town, but I know a couple of things.  First there are several other RV parks popping up in Gonzales County, so there is competition.  First thing I know about competition is that prices rarely go up when there is competition. 

Second, I can't imagine anyone who is renting anything being told their rent was going up 50% is going to tell the landlord where they can put their place.  I'm surprised there are any trailers still out there, but it sure appears to me that we're no where near our 110+ occupancy.

Now if the going rate is $500/month, then having new people moving in at that rate I totally understand.  And raising the rate to to maybe $400/month and over a period of time moving it up to $500/month.  There is nothing saying that everyone has to pay the same price.  And if someone has already worked on the deal at $350/month we need to be respectful of that. 

So I'm going to back to my a previous blog on outside management at the JB Wells and/or getting a committee together to look at the management procedures out at JB Wells.  I still believe if we are going to continue to have rodeos and run this then we need to put a committee together to list generally accepted practices to get our arena in line.  The committee would go back to the council for them to decide what practices to accept. 

When are we going to realize that our city is not a mom and pop business, but is yours and my money that is being wasted, yes I'm going to call it like it is, wasted.  This is big business.  So big even that back during budgeting we were promised that JB Wells would be set up into it's own separate account division, so it would be easier to understand profits and losses.  As of the first of this month it was not done.  Water, Sewer, and all the other profit centers are separated out, but not  JB Wells. 

Last year we lost over $200,000 at JB Wells.  So once again I'm going to call for our council to take the appropriate steps to get JB Wells under control.  Set procedures in place so that it is properly managed, and things like checks and balances are put into place.

Please let's not go another year and have to come back to this point again!

God Bless,
Dennis Nesser